A DOUBLE amputee from Woking died from head injuries when his unsecured wheelchair tipped over in a G4S ambulance that the driver had not been properly trained to use, an inquest jury has found.

Palaniappan Thevarayan, 47, of Hawthorn Road, Barnsbury, was being transferred to St Helier Hospital in Sutton on May 4 last year when his wheelchair came free from the built-in clamps and he fatally hit his head.

The jury at Westminster Coroner’s Court ruled on Thursday (March 7) that Mr Thevarayan had not been securely clamped into the back of the ambulance.

Driver John Garner and fellow G4S staff were insufficiently trained to transport hundreds of patients from their homes to clinics and hospitals across London and the south east, the inquest heard.

The court was told drivers were aware of problems with the clamps prior to the incident, and were then told to stop using them immediately after Mr Thevarayan’s death. New vehicles were introduced in November 2011.

The former newsagent was being moved from a dialysis treatment centre in Epsom to St Helier’s when he had to be diverted because his catheter had become blocked, the inquest heard.

After hearing that Mr Garner’s manual handling training had not been refreshed since 2009, jurors decided: “Patient transport service staff were not sufficiently trained in the safe transportation of patients by ambulance.”

Mr Thevarayan, who was born in India, had been undergoing dialysis three times a week for nearly three years when he died and was only using the Epsom centre because his usual facility in West Byfleet had been temporarily shut down in April 2011 due to storm damage.

Mr Thevarayan’s wife and full-time carer Nirmala told the inquest she wanted answers about his treatment by G4S and why it took so long to get him into surgery.

She said her husband was given a 50:50 chance of survival if operated on immediately after the injury but nearly six hours passed before he went for surgery.

“I want to know why they didn’t look after him properly,” she told the court on Monday.

“And in hospital, why did they take so long to treat him?”

Mrs Thevarayan said her husband had called to say he would receive antibiotics and be back home that night.

But he was given a bleak outlook when assessed by doctors on arrival at St Helier’s, the inquest heard.

Despite his condition, it was not until 10pm that he was transferred to St George’s in Tooting for surgery and a further four hours until he went into the operating theatre.

The inquest heard Mr Thevarayan, a devoted family man, was diagnosed as diabetic when he was 23 and developed kidney problems later on in life.

He was forced to retire when both his legs were amputated after he developed circulation difficulties, and had a heart bypass in 2009.

But Mrs Thevarayan said her husband remained fiercely independent, despite his health problems.

“He was a very capable man, and what he could do, he would do,” she told the inquest. “He never asked anyone for any help.”

She added he was nearing the top of the kidney transplant list when he died and was also due to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.

“The next day he had an appointment with the transplant surgeon and he was so looking forward to that,” his wife said.

Mr Thevarayan died of an acute chronic subdural haematoma and head injury contributed to by chronic renal failure and diabetes.

Assistant deputy coroner Kevin McLoughlin said to Mrs Thevarayan and her son and daughter, who sat through the four-day inquest: “I pay tribute to the calm dignity which you and your family have conducted yourself through what must have been heartbreaking evidence.”